Theophano

   1) First wife and empress of Leo VI (qq.v.). She was chosen for him in a bride show (q.v.) arranged by Basil I and Eudokia Ingerina (qq.v.). This proved to be an unhappy marriage, and after Theophano's untimely death in 895, at about age 20, Leo VI married his mistress. Leo VI's reputation suffered throughout, more so with the subsequent tetragamy (q.v.) controversy. Theophano's reputation, on the other hand, only increased. For her piety and good works she was sanctified soon after her death.

   2) Wife and empress of two emperors, Romanos II, and Nikephoros II Phokas (qq.v.). She conspired with her lover, future John I Tzimiskes (q.v.), to murder Nikephoros II. For her role in his murder, the patriarch Polyeuktos (qq.v.) demanded of John I Tzimiskes that Theophano be banished. Tzimiskes reluctantly agreed to this in order to be crowned emperor (q.v.). She was allowed to return from exile in the Prokonnesos (q.v.) in 976, long after John I Tzimiskes had married Theodora, the sister of Romanos II. Theophano's lasting legacy to Byzantium (q.v.) was that she was mother of future emperor Basil II (q.v.).

   3) Married western emperor Otto II (qq.v.) (973-983) in 972; regent and mother of Otto III (q.v.). She was a niece of John I Tzimiskes (q.v.). The marriage was accompanied by a peace treaty and alliance between the two empires that halted their hostilities in Italy (q.v.). Thephano and her large Greek entourage were living advertisements for Byzantine culture and refinement in the German court. She shocked Germans by taking baths (considered unhealthy in the West) and by her luxurious silk clothes. (A German nun claimed to have a dream in which she saw Theophano in hell for these sins.) Theophano's true audience was her son, the future Otto III (q.v.), who was taught to love all things Byzantine and who assumed, as western emperor, all the trappings and pretensions of the Byzantine court.